Copper, White, and Silver
by SpurningSocialDarwinism
Summary: Kirito reflects as he watches the love of his life die before his eyes.


It astounds him when he sees it.

A quiet fall, not loud, boisterous or distracting as most falls can be.

It astounds him, that in the midst of his hacking and swaying, in the arms of combat beneath the gaze of the judging three Fates, he never realizes that she too is watching.

That she too is there, crying out for him, begging him to live for her and for the future they hope for, that her plea reverberates unsounded and unrequited.

That her hands are with his, though she has not the strength to lift them against the impossible gravity imposed upon her.

That her feet move so much faster than his ever could, ducking every swing, feinting while holier-than-thou Kayaba's eyes are unable to track Lightning Flash Asuna as she prays herself into Kirito's shoes with every passing moment.

He doesn't see the desolation in her eyes until a flash of copper and white, and then he is frozen in place.

Kayaba's sword runs straight through her, a meteorite of a capacity that her loving anger will not halt. Not for eternity. Certainly not for her.

It's quiet.

Her love… her eyes as she turns to smile at him one last time are clear and calm… he sees it, and she doesn't need to say anything- it's there. It's all there, written, where he can see it, a picture that tells a trillion more words than all she could ever say, a hundred thousand moments frozen in all time and space that he knows he'll never forget.

When he's waiting at the end of the flowered aisle for her in all his wildest dreams, her pale, delicate hand latched to her father's arm, he will still remember.

When he's old and aching, if he ever gets there, and his eyes are too tired to open anymore, he'll still remember.

When all the people he's known and loved wither away like wisteria beneath a grueling summer drought, he'll still remember.

So when she pulls the impossible, as only Asuna Yuuki can do, when she forces her swaying frame to its feet and flings herself in harm's way to take a blow never meant for her, he is frozen.

When she turns and smiles at him, he fractures and splits into so many versions of himself, broken and anguished, all headed for the same destination.

When she shatters into a thousand pieces and his impossibly deft fingers reach out to pull them back together, hoping to feel her touch once more, to hear her voice, for her to look at him, his conviction is utterly gone.

 _"You can't ever just leave me here,"_ she said once, _"How do you think I'd feel if you never came home, because you had me waiting here? I'd kill myself!"_

He hadn't listened. Not as intently as he should have, it appears.

And one fleeting thought that occurs to him before he takes Kayaba's life is- _I'm there._

 _When you falter, I am there._

 _When you hold me, I am everywhere but anywhere that isn't here._

 _When you shatter, I am everything but anything that isn't the glue that pulls those pieces back together._

 _When the whole world turns against you and you've nothing left to live for, I am nowhere and everywhere, the fire that burns the world down so that you can live again, and the water that quenches those flames so that someday you can walk this world without fear of being scorched._

 _When the heavens say no, I am the one that drags himself from Hell's gate soulless so these tired eyes can see your smile, just one last time._

As he watches his red HP bar touch the line, and he feels himself fading, the iridescent little fractals of Asuna's avatar spiraling around him aimlessly… _my little warrior,_ he thinks, _I am everywhere but anywhere that isn't beside you._

And as the game's servers begin to close and the curtains fold together, monitors and sensors screaming all around the globe, he sees a lightning flash of copper and white; when he reaches out to her this time, his body truly and finally ethereal, she's safe, she's there, she's beside him, she's not a hundred fractals spinning off into the digital void.

The world is never right, he knows, but for their eternity captured in but a few measly seconds, it is whole.


End file.
